Sky's a Different Blue
by Solo By Choice
Summary: An archive for whatever DS9 drabbles I write. New chapter: Kira; Quark, Dax; Bashir and Garak discuss literature
1. Chapter 1

"Why me?" she asked one evening when they were in her quarters, just sitting.

He thought about it. The only things which came to mind were moments. Like how she drank her raktijino when they read the crime reports on Tuesday mornings. Like how she wasn't afraid to show exactly how she felt or tell it the way it was. The way she said his name. The things they'd forgiven each other for. She was his best friend. He loved her.

"I don't know," he said finally.

She laughed. "At least you're honest."

They went back to watching the stars.

/

At the end, he thinks back to the beginning, when he played mysterious stranger to Bashir's pretty young doctor- so utterly convinced that he could cure any ill, right any wrong. He was going to save everybody.

Now the lines around his eyes and mouth speak otherwise. The war stripped away his naiveté. Looking in those eyes, Garak can tell his friend has done terrible things. They're a little less different now.

Funny, how at the beginning he wanted to show Julian the way things really are. Now he wishes there were some way to bring that boyish smile back.

/

Miles gets that the war is serious; of course he does. He's seen the casualty reports, been in battle, gone undercover for the Federation. He's looked over the Breen weapon schematics and concluded that their engineers must be evil geniuses. He watched the _Defiant_ destroyed and felt like part of him died with her.

Since he came on board this station, he's been through hell and back, multiple times.

Some might have been bitter, but Miles O'Brien thinks, as he shares dinner with Keiko, Molly, Yoshi, and Julian, that somebody up there must love him. He's the luckiest man alive.


	2. Chapter 2

Odo tugged at his collar, shifted his shoulders and felt the fabric of his uniform move. He doubted he would ever get used to the sensation of wearing clothes. Bashir had subjected him to every possible indignity over the last few days, finally discharging him with the assurance that he was perfectly functional.

He didn't want to be 'perfectly functional;' he wanted to melt and re-coalesce as a hawk, a chair, anything. He almost wanted to feel the pain of holding a single form this long, but he never would again and that was the problem.

He was stuck, permanently.

/

For the first day in her entire life, Kira Nerys stood on Bajor, in the center of a decimated village, surrounded by Bajorans who, timidly at first but then louder, were daring to cheer. Kira did not join them. Smoke still rose in the distance; the faces of her people were still frightened and lean; the once-rich soil was unusable. The millions who had died remained dead. There was no time to celebrate because the fight was not over yet. She was glad. She was so used to fighting that she was afraid what it would be like to stop.

/

Jadzia ran her finger carefully down Kira's arm, feeling the thin scars which occasionally marred smooth flesh. "Believe me, I still make mistakes. I just have more practice covering them up." She pushed herself up on one elbow, curious.

Kira smirked. "All that experience must be useful sometimes."

Gracefully, the Trill placed one hand on either side of Kira's body, long arms holding her up so she could look down into the Bajoran woman's face. Her long hair brushed Kira's shoulders. "Well," she whispered, grinning as she leaned down, "it certainly isn't the first time I've done something like this."


	3. Chapter 3

Quark may keep it pretty close to the vest, but he genuinely thinks Jadzia Dax is a great person. This is a first for him. He's never before been 'just friends' with a woman, not without other benefits on the side. He makes a token complaint about that, of course, but the truth is that he doesn't spend time with Dax just because she's gorgeous (though she is) but because he honestly likes to talk to her, play Tongo with her, make her laugh when she's down.

"Confront," says Jadzia, with that grin.

Even if, sometimes, she can be infuriating.

/

"So what did you think?"

"The last chapter—"

"I knew you'd have a problem with that," Bashir muttered.

"—was completely unnecessary. All the clues where there and Ms Christie would have done better to trust her audience. I also thought it unlikely that no one but the doctor would check the judge after he was 'shot'…Doctor, why are you smirking like that?"

Bashir grinned outright. "You liked the book."

"Well, it was better than Shakespeare."

"Everyone was guilty, they all died and you practically complemented the author: you absolutely liked it."

Garak smiled slightly. "Believe what you wish."

/

Kira was very small when her mother was taken away. She remembers dimly someone singing softly as they washed her hair with gentle hands and she chooses to believe this was her mother. (She also chooses to divorce that memory from the reality that the Orb of Time showed her, the reality of the Kira Meru that was.)

It is her father she remembers closely and loved so much it still hurts sometimes. It is his death that she missed.

Sometimes she wonders what they would think of her now: their little Kira Nerys who fights and is always angry.


End file.
